Free Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) by Bernard Lee DeLeo Page B

minutes.

Chapter Four
    Planning, Procedure, and Practice
    We reached the Carmel Valley home of El Kabong and Cleaner Cala soon after. The ranch style estate could not be seen from the road or surrounding properties. I would have draped the groggy body of Bibi over my shoulder to follow Nick, but Gus and John produced heavy duty gurneys. I deposited Bibi on one. John brought along the empty after explaining he and Gus needed to transport the bodies back and forth. Lynn kept entertained watching Cleaner Cala taking measurements of the still living bodies even during transport. The underground facility stirred memories of horror movies I’d seen as a kid. Gus demonstrated the black-lights which could be switched on with the accompaniment of music from the movie ‘The Exorcist’, complete with what John explained were real screams and a kaleidoscope of torture images.
    “Muerto built this before he even knew us,” Gus explained. “He’s been disturbed in the head for a very long time. We don’t try to guess at how long. Only a few people ever enter here and emerge at anything but room temperature.”
    Lynn was in heaven, dancing around under the black-lights with our prisoners gawking at the room with undisguised terror. “Oh my God, Muerto! This is incredible. Clint? Take movies for the minions. They need to build me one of these.”
    Clint smiled and began filming with his high-tech video cam he did Lynn’s movies with on the fly. “I think you’re scaring our guests, dear.”
    “It’s a small matter, brother,” Nick told him. “They know enough now to understand how this works. We’ll let them drink in the ambience of the room while we go take care of the Isis boatmen. Let’s get them settled in, John.”
    Nick, Gus, and John then strapped Gordon, Emir, and Bibi onto the gurneys. The gurneys could be locked down into the cement floor so they were unmovable. Restraints on the gurneys incorporated both heavy gauge straps and steel clamps. Bibi became coherent enough to realize she resided at least temporarily in a manmade hell, soon to become permanent, and began to scream. We let her. Work on the high seas awaited. Nick motioned for us to exit his interrogation facility. I saw Denny shaking his head as we left. Denny was a master at interrogation, second only to Crue, but I could tell he was impressed.
    “You are a very bad man, Nick,” Denny stated as we cleared the camouflaged exit.
    “Thank you,” Nick replied. “Can we talk about my request? I want us to attack this Falak like you guys did the Isis compounds with ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ playing.”
    We started laughing, especially Lucas. He was ecstatic.
    “Damn, boot-camp, you’re alright! We have just the thing if the sound system on the boat you want to use as an assault craft is really good,” Lucas explained, giving the grinning Nick a shoulder hug.
    “It can shatter glass at a hundred yards,” Gus said. “John and I installed a surround sound system on board my Lucky Lady capable of projection you will not believe without hearing it.”
    “That’s outstanding, Gus.” Lucas turned to Clint. “You have our sounds from the Sea Wolf attack craft, right?”
    “I have it,” Clint confirmed. “I can plug it right in on their vessel.”
    “Oh my,” Lynn said happily. “You boys sure know how to show a girl a good time. Let’s talk turkey. What kind of weaponry do you have on board the Lady, Gus?”
    “Muerto blackmailed the CIA Director into giving him a state of the art electronic pulse weapon. We also have a mount for our hidden M2 .50 caliber machine gun and an XM307 25mm grenade launcher. Muerto designed the mounts on the Lady so we can use both on an intended target from observation deck. The Lady is shielded from EMP attack too by way of Faraday Cages around all electronics.”
    “I did not blackmail Paul, Payaso,” Nick complained. “We have a full armory here if there’s anything special you want. I have my M107 .50